Climate Change Denial Research Articles

Motivated reasoning and climate change: Comparing news sources, politicization, intensification, and qualification in denier versus believer subreddit comments

AbstractMotivated reasoning explains how climate change deniers can maintain their beliefs in the face of disconfirming evidence, suggesting that, compared to believers, the online comments of climate change deniers are more likely to (a) reference independent and social media websites advocating ideologically congruent positions, (b) politicize the issue, and (c) use intensifiers (e.g., definitely, undoubtedly). Automated text analysis of 156,844 comments from subreddit communities with opposing perspectives on climate change identified the internet domains associated with hyperlinks and the frequencies of political terms and intensifiers in user comments. Results were consistent with motivated reasoning by climate change deniers. In addition, climate change believers were more likely than deniers to use qualifiers in their comments.

Climate Deniers: Is Climate Change Actually a Conspiracy?

Climate Deniers: Is Climate Change Actually a Conspiracy?

Public support and opposition toward floating offshore wind power development in Norway

For countries like Norway, with abundant offshore wind resources and deep seas, floating wind power technology can play an essential role in the green energy transition. However, this technology is still immature, and the first utility-scale floating offshore wind power projects need substantial support for technology development to be commercially feasible. This study employs an online survey targeting the general population in Norway (N = 1011) to investigate support and opposition toward floating offshore wind power development. The survey includes a discrete choice experiment focusing on policy-relevant factors such as the export of electricity, reducing domestic carbon emissions by electrifying offshore oil and gas platforms, impact on global technology cost trends, and involving domestic offshore industries as key players in the floating offshore wind sector. We find the highest support for developing projects that utilize technology from domestic offshore industries and projects connected to the domestic electricity grid. Projects aimed at reducing domestic carbon emissions by electrifying offshore oil and gas platforms are favored over those for exporting electricity to other countries. A significant impact on future technology costs does not lead to increased support for the project. Projects presented after a framing text focusing on meeting future electricity demand result in a higher willingness to pay for floating offshore wind projects than those presented after a framing text focusing on meeting climate objectives. Respondents opposing all the projects are likely climate skeptics and believe that project developers should bear all the project costs. Norway is expected to play a critical role in developing floating wind power. However, the Norwegians demand clear national benefits to be willing to shoulder the cost of spearheading the floating offshore wind power development. Understanding these preferences is vital for crafting energy policies aligning with public interests and rapidly integrating floating wind power into the green energy transition.

Climate Denial as Alienation in advance

Climate Denial as Alienation in advance

Persuading climate skeptics with facts: Effects of causal evidence vs. consensus messaging

Communicating the “97%’’ scientific consensus has been the centerpiece of the effort to persuade climate skeptics. Still, this strategy may not work well for those who mistrust climate scientists, to begin with. We examine how the American public—Republicans in particular—respond when provided with a relatively detailed causal explanation summarizing why scientists have concluded that human activities are responsible for climate change. Based on a preregistered survey experiment ( N = 3007), we assessed the effectiveness of detailed causal evidence versus traditional consensus messaging. We found that both treatments had noticeable effects on belief in human-caused climate change, with the causal evidence being slightly more effective, though we did not observe equivalent patterns for changes in attitudes toward climate policies. We conclude that conveying scientific information serves more as a remedy than a cure, reducing but not eliminating misperceptions about climate change and opposition to climate policies.

Public Awareness of Major Climate Change Reports and Potential Political Connections

Climate change will affect all life. Sociologists contribute to major climate change reports and are interested in how people are engaging these documents. Major climate change reports coming from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the National Climate Assessment are used by scientists, policy makers, and localities to assess climate vulnerability and create climate action plans. Although sociologists have been at the forefront of understanding climate change perception, there is limited understanding about how the public interacts with these reports or whether they are even aware of them. The author uses survey data ( n = 1,013) to assess public awareness of these reports. The results suggest that conservative think tanks may be doing a better job at marketing reports to advance their agendas. This is important information as scientists continue to think about how to reach the public to advance mitigation and adaptation efforts and counter climate denialism.

Media education and the limits of “literacy”: Ecological orientations to performative platforms

Recently, talk of “fake news” – and its relation to wider epistemic crises, from climate denialism to the creep of global ethnonationalism – has renewed attention to media literacy in education. For some, revived discussions of media literacy offer protection (e.g., strategies for identifying and critiquing media bias and misinformation). For others, they offer empowerment (e.g. equipping youth to produce media messages that challenge misinformation or represent marginalized perspectives). In this article, we consider how such approaches, while often generative, retain a focus of media pedagogy that centers the actions of individual humans – namely, “literacies”, or practices associated with the interpretation or creation of media texts.

Implicacions als tuits dels escèptics del canvi climàtic

The article attempts to provide a speech act analysis of tweets which are posted by climate change skeptics. It argues that their deliberate flouting and violation of Grice’s Cooperative Principle show that substitute overt denial by conversational implicatures which show skepticism. Based on data from 420 tweets which are responses to climate change discussion, the paper demonstrates that tweeters respond with different deceptive tactics by using conversational implicatures. The article attempts to provide a pragmatic analysis of tweets which are posted by climate change opponents. It argues that their deliberate violation of the CP shows that their attitude shifted from overt denial to skepticism.

Annals of Education: Teaching Climate Change and Global Public Health.

The climate crisis is a health emergency: breaking temperature records every successive month, increasing mortality from hurricanes/cyclones resulting in >USD150 billion/year in damages, and mounting global loss of life from floods, droughts, and food insecurity. An entire course on climate change and global public health was envisioned, designed for students in public health, and delivered to Masters level students. The course content included the physical science behind global heating, heat waves, extreme weather disasters, arthropod-related diseases, allergies, air pollution epidemiology, melting ice and sea level rise, climate denialism, renewable energy and economics, social cost of carbon, and public policy. The methods included student engagement in presenting two air pollution epidemiological or experimental papers on fossil fuel air pollution. Second, they authored a mid-term paper on a specific topic in the climate crisis facing their locale, e.g., New York City. Third, they focused on a State, evaluating their climate change laws and their plans to harness renewable wind, solar, storage, nuclear, and geothermal energy. Students elsewhere covered regional entities' approach to renewable energy. Fourth, the global impact was presented by student teams presenting a country's nationally determined contribution to the Paris Climate Agreement. Over 200 Master's students completed the course; the participation and feedback demonstrated markedly improved knowledge and evaluation of the course over time.

Habituated to Denial

The article discusses the mechanisms of climate change denial. It starts from the observation that habituation to denial is based on a process that is exactly the opposite on the content level: the process of repeated aha-experiences, i.e., sudden insights into reality of the climate crisis. In the first part, the author summarises the developments of recent years, which came to a symbolic end at COP 28 in Dubai, when the President introduced the contradictory idea that the transition to a sustainable paradigm is only possible by simultaneously maintaing the fossil fuel paradigm. In the second part, the article summarises some of the main points of what was probably the first interdisciplinary symposium on climate change, organised in 1975 by Margaret Mead. Referring to the conference’s position paper, the author first develops the basic framework for productive interaction between the social and natural sciences as Mead envisioned it and then presents the social consequences of the fact that the relationship remained institutionally disorganised—and eventually had to organise itself.

Knowledge and (un)certainty in climate change education in India

AbstractThis paper explores teachers' conceptions of climate change knowledge, contributing to the growing body of work on the geographies of climate change. The paper focuses on the data generated through in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with a sample of 48 teachers in India to address the research question: What discourses about climate change knowledge are being constructed by teachers in India? We argue that teachers' lesson planning and searches for information are at the forefront of the changing ways in which individuals engage with, find out and construct meaning about climate change. These teachers' beliefs about climate change are very strongly held, even in the face of a perceived lack of expertise or understanding: climate change is described as the ‘need of the hour’, which this work understands as not only involving material impacts and processes but also important epistemological, collaborative needs through which education might contribute to public reasoning about climate change. Through this analysis we present a ‘certainty problematic’ as a heuristic device that foregrounds tensions between the inherent uncertainty of knowledge and (against climate denialism) certainty about anthropogenic climate change.

Climate Change Perceptions and Associated Characteristics in Canadian Prairie Agricultural Producers

Climate change (CC) poses a threat to agricultural sustainability, which is important in the Canadian Prairies, as agriculture is a major occupation and driver of the economy. Agriculture involves both the creation and mitigation of emissions related to CC. To implement adaptation and mitigation practices, producers should accept CC as fact. This study is based in Saskatchewan, Canada, where CC denial is prevalent in public comments. To assess the validity of this anecdotal impression, this study provided a snapshot of Saskatchewan agricultural producers’ perceptions and observations of CC and assessed whether views on CC are associated with characteristics of political orientation and affiliation, mental flexibility, systems thinking, time orientation, climate knowledge, climate observations, and demographic variables. A survey was developed with the following four sections: (1) individual characteristics; (2) observed changes in climate-related variables; (3) knowledge and perceptions about CC; and (4) demographic variables. The survey included multiple-choice questions and items scored on a Likert scale. The survey was completed by 330 Saskatchewan agricultural producers (i.e., farmers and ranchers). The results indicated more CC denial in Saskatchewan producers than in other Canadian samples. Individual and socioeconomic characteristics of lower levels of formal education, identifying as male, conservative political affiliation and ideation, low trust in science, and low mental flexibility were associated with less acceptance and concern of CC. It is therefore necessary to consider socioeconomic and individual characteristics of producers in measures aiming to increase the acceptance of the reality of CC. Future intervention research should target male producers with lower levels of formal education, low trust in science, low mental flexibility, and right-leaning political ideation for the improvement of CC perceptions and examine different teaching methods (e.g., lectures, workshops, webinars) and dissemination methods (e.g., online versus in-person sessions) to see how various techniques may influence learning, as well as the way the information is used by particular groups.

Is conservative opposition to climate change threat-based? Articulating an integrated threat model of climate change attitudes.

Throughout the literature, there are assertions that those endorsing conservative ideologies reject the science and solutions of climate change due to perceived threat. That is, they fear that accepting climate change means accepting problems with a favoured socioeconomic system and supporting action on climate change threatens to disrupt these systems. We draw together lines of research and reasoning on this topic to outline three key predictions this perspective makes about the drivers of conservative denial of climate change and opposition to climate policy. The first is that an asymmetry exists in climate-related threat perceptions, whereby greater endorsement of conservative ideology predicts lower perceived threat from climate change and greater perceived threat from climate reform. Second, climate-related threat perceptions are multifaceted, such that threats to economic and cultural well-being can be experienced, at personal or collective levels. Third, the asymmetry in threat perceptions explains conservatives' lower support for pro-climate reforms. We then specify a new integrated threat model of climate change attitudes, review the current evidence for and against each prediction in this model and outline ways to interrogate these theoretical predictions with empirical research. Doing so will advance understanding of the underpinnings of ideological disagreement on climate change.

Climate Change as Represented in Corporate Social Responsibility Reports of American and Chinese Energy Giants: A Critical Frame Analysis Perspective

Adopting a critical frame analysis perspective, this study investigates how American and Chinese energy giants represent and frame climate change in their corporate social responsibility reports, and reveals the respective underlying motivations and ideologies. The results show that the eight energy giants all recognized climate change, barely diagnosed its causes, slightly interpreted its impacts, but placed heavy emphasis on their solutions. They divert responsibility and criticism, through representing themselves as a victim and solver rather than a contributor. The frames identified in both corpora include Emission Management frame, Techno-optimism frame, Countermeasures frame, and Stakeholder Engagement frame, with common and distinct characteristics across the two corpora. The analysis of representations and frames exposes shared motivations such as greenwashing, legitimacy, and stakeholder engagement. However, these motivations indicate distinct ideologies, with American energy giants’ ideological denial, a subtle form of climate denialism, and Chinese energy giants’ green growth ideology, striving for a green, low-carbon development while reducing emissions.

Climate change beliefs and their correlates in Latin America

The ability of climate skeptics to block climate action depends on prevailing beliefs among the public. Research in advanced democracies has shown skepticism about the existence, the causes, and the consequences of climate change to be associated with socio-demographic features and political ideology. Yet, little is known about climate-related beliefs elsewhere. We address this gap by mapping beliefs in climate change and their correlates in Latin America. We show skepticism over the existence and anthropogenic origins of climate change to be limited, but identify a high number of skeptics around the severity of its consequences. Furthermore, we show skepticism to be correlated with psychological rather than socio-political factors: individualistic worldviews in particular drive disbelief in the severe consequences of climate change, a worrying finding in contexts where social trust is low. These findings offer a starting point for better addressing the constraining effects of climate skepticism in the Global South.

Climate Change Skeptics’ Environmental Concerns and Support for Clean Energy Policy: A Case Study of the US Pacific Northwest

Resistance to clean energy policy in the United States stems partly from public hesitancy and skepticism toward anthropogenic climate change. This article examines self-declared climate change skeptics’ views of clean energy policy along a continuum of skeptical thought, spanning from epistemic denial to attribution doubt. To perform this, we use data from an online survey administered in the US Pacific Northwest and a series of pilot interviews conducted with skeptics in the same region. Results reveal that skeptics’ support for clean energy policy is consistently linked with their environmental concern across the skepticism continuum. Conspiracy ideation and distrust in science lead to a reduction in support. However, the positive effect of environmental concern trumps the effects of these beliefs. Important and hopeful implications of these findings for climate change communication and policy are discussed.

Climate Change and Occupational Therapy: Meeting the Urgent Need for Adaptation, Mitigation, and Resilience

Climate change may be the most pressing existential threat to human health and wellbeing in the twenty first century. In this paper, the authors provide context and critique on barriers to climate action in the United States and other high-income countries, including the profit-driven approach to health, consumerism, and the climate change countermovement. The reciprocal connections between occupational engagement and climate damage are examined from a lens of collective and irresponsible occupations and subsequent accountability. The authors propose the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals as a basis for recommendations occupational therapy practitioners could implement within the priorities of adaptation, mitigation, and resilience.

Fabricating the Truth About Bruno Latour(s)

In his lifetime, Bruno Latour (1947-2022) made many provocative and controversial arguments, such as about the nature of the practices of the natural sciences, and against standard social scientific forms of critique. Running through many of Latour’s interventions, aimed at what he took to be stultifying forms of academic and intellectual orthodoxy, was a concern with the nature of truth. Whether emphasising how science fabricates its ‘facts’, or in having to deal with uncomfortable similarities between that sort of analysis and the attacks on the allegedly fraudulent nature of climate science by climate sceptics, or in presenting the societal bases of standard forms of social critique as fictitious, Latour was constantly engaged in battles about and polemics concerning what counts as truths and truthfulness. In this paper, we consider the nature of some of the main contours of Latour’s battles about and with truths. We present an account of his practice in a critical light. Sometimes that involves stepping outside of the ‘anti-critical’ frame of reference he sought to construct and impose on how philosophy, sociology and other ways of thinking are done, but it also sometimes involves using that apparatus, while turning it against the intentions of the author. The purpose of this paper is not to try out-do Latour in the dismissal of intellectual positions other than one’s own. Instead, we focus on other types and levels of failure in the career-long endeavours and engagements with matters of truth of this curious but undoubtedly unavoidable figure, ‘Bruno Latour’. We end by speculating if more ‘Bruno Latours’ will be fabricated in the service of new modes of truth-creation in the future.

Profiles of climate change distress and climate denialism during adolescence: A two-cohort longitudinal study

This study investigates adolescents’ climate change distress and climate denialism profiles with two cohorts (born in 2008 and 2006) using longitudinal data from two waves collected in 2020 and 2021 (N = 3,002). In addition, the explanatory similarity of the subgroups regarding general well-being and pro-environmental behavior was studied. Four profiles were identified. The largest group was named the normative-carefree group because they had low climate change distress and climate denialism. Another group named denialists also had low distress but higher denial. Both these groups were associated with relatively good well-being. The third group had elevated climate change-related emotional distress and low climate denial and was therefore named the emotionally involved group. They engaged in pro-environmental behavior the most. The last and the smallest group was called the overburdened because they had elevated distress accompanied by denial; belongingness to the group was related to low well-being. Estimated transition patterns showed that the profiles were unstable within a 1-year span. The results endorse that adolescents’ climate change distress is ongoing and developing all the time, rather than being something permanent. The results also show that both climate change distress and climate denialism can co-exist among adolescents.

On the links between climate scepticism and right-wing populism (RWP): an explanatory approach based on cultural political economy (CPE)

ABSTRACT Various analyses show that right-wing populist parties (RWP) tend to be sceptical of climate science and policy. This points to a blank space in the dominant analyses of populism: their blindness towards society-nature relations. This paper aims to develop an approach grounded in Cultural Political Economy (CPE) that can be used to decipher the mediation of RWP within the context of economic, political, and cultural developments as well as society–nature relations. Against this background, the argument is developed that RWP is concerned not only with countering migration and processes of societal liberalisation, but also with defending an existing way of life that is firmly rooted in the destructive appropriation of nature. As a current of right-wing politics, RWP defends the imperial mode of living by expressing scepticism towards the existence of anthropogenic climate change. The paper contributes to a better understanding of the political economy of RWP by linking the dimensions of social domination with the appropriation of nature.